The teacher and I have been emailing a lot. I'm asking questions. She's asking too. There's a lot of information on the table about this but for now there is no clear pattern. He's happy and content getting ready for school in the morning. Skips to the bus with barely a glance to me and off he goes.
One could say "Well this is on the school's watch. How are you suppose to know?" But this is autism. Even when he's not with me, he's with me. I'm never not on duty.
It could be something as simple as he doesn't like a certain subject that happens at school that day. It could be something as the bus takes a different route to school on Wednesdays that sets him off. Or it could be he often gets so fixated on routines and schedules that he is simply stuck. Twenty five Wednesdays ago he might of had a bad day. All the sudden now he feels the need to recreate that meltdown like some sort of autism historical reenactor. The most frustrating part of this is I won't find out just by asking "Dude,wtf?" like a typical parent/kid exchange might go. (OK, it would be a cleaner version of that but you know what I mean.)
Is it a subject? Is it the principal's color of his tie? Is it the humming buzz of the school's furnace kicking in? Even if I do figure it out, he still has to learn to deal with it. As much as I am always advocating for accommodations, sometimes he has to learn to accommodate us too. Kiddo, I will always try to help but somethings are just beyond my control. Even though you seem to think the keeper of the password to the Wifi and the iTunes account must be pretty powerful, I do have my limits.
While the kiddo has no problems in the verbal skills department, it's where and how he uses them that provides the challenge. Plus add a dash or more accurately a full dose of autism and I'm going to have to pry that conversation out of him. Even then I'm more likely to hear him scripting along to what the gym teacher told his class a week ago. (Hula Hoop Time!)
This is where autism sucks. It's not a gift that I can't figure out why he is so unhappy every Wednesday. This is not some adorable quirk. My kiddo is miserable and I have no idea why. As a mom it pretty much feels like having your heart ripped out of your chest and stomped on.
Why can't it just be easy? Like ever? Why can't the reason be something like "I'm tired from partying the night before Mom. You said party night was always Tuesday nights at college cause no one took double course day on Wednesday." OK, so maybe it would be a little alarming to hear from my ten year old that he was simply too hungover to be upright let alone be a model student that day. Give me something here Kiddo. I have no idea what's going on and like it or not everyone is going to ask me first what's up your craw. Good lord, this must be what it feels like to be a PR for Charlie Sheen.
Help me to help you kiddo. Really. There's a side of fries and a Yoohoo in it for you.